In this swamped schedule, nobody has time to calm and foster their mind, body, or soul. People are so much addicted to technology and social media that they scarcely guard their health. Technology has just snapped the whole world. However, there are a few companies that are leveraging the same technology for the betterment of human health, one of the most prominent of them is – Calm. As the name suggests, Calm is an app that helps users to relax in their daily life, nourishing their mind, body and soul.
Happiest App, ‘Calm’
Calm is best known as a meditation, sleep and mental wellness app. It creates unique audio content that strengthens mental fitness and tackles some of the biggest mental health challenges of today: Stress, Anxiety, Insomnia and Depression.
This app is available in both the App Store and Google Play Store. It is considered as #1 app for mindfulness and meditation, with over 21 million downloads to date and over 50,000 new users daily. The Calm app is free to download but a premium subscription gives access to over 100 hours of premium content, including an ever-growing library of advanced meditations, soothing sleep stories, calming nature scenes, a breathing tool and Calm Masterclasses.
The heart of Calm is digital but Calm is also taking its noble service offline in various ways that bring more peace, clarity and perspective into people’s busy lives. It has partnered with Penguin to publish a popular book; developed a natural sleep aid called Sleep Mist and has plans to create Calm clothing, home-ware, hotels and more.
Innovators behind the Wellness App
Calm was founded by British entrepreneurs Michael Acton Smith OBE and Alex Tew, with a mission to make the world healthier and happier.
When Alex Tew was a teen, he was interested in studying the mind and in particularly, how to improve it. He realized how important mindfulness is for everyone. The world is getting faster and busier. Many of us are overworked and stressed out. It was time to return to the idea of bringing meditation to the world by leveraging the power of the internet so with the help of his close friend Michael Acton Smith he launched Calm in 2012.
Michael Acton Smith OBE has long been fascinated by neuroscience, flow states and mental fitness. Learning to meditate had a profound impact on his life and he is passionate about spreading this simple but valuable skill around the world.
Michael was also the founder of Mind Candy and creator of Moshi Monsters, the online world for children that grew to 80 Million registered users and expanded offline into books, toys, games, magazines, music and movies. Michael is also the founder of Firebox.com, Ping Pong Fight Club and Berwickstock music festival. In 2014, he was awarded an OBE for services to the Creative Industries.
Michael Acton Smith OBE and Alex Tew both of them have faced difficulties in their lives. They saw that by doing meditation one can relax themselves and will also be mentally and physically fit.
A Glance at Features of the App
Calm provides meditation and relaxation theme service through their app. The most popular feature is a 10-minute meditation called “The Daily Calm” that discusses a new mindful theme and inspiring thought every morning. This meditation app also contains over 90 Bedtime Sleep Stories, Sleep Music, Meditation Lessons, Nature Sounds, Serene Videos, Multi-day Programs and Calm Masterclasses delivered by world experts.
The relaxation app Calm also focuses on the wellness of employees. PricewaterhouseCoopers (as PwC) employees are eligible for free Calm Premium access through #bewellworkwell. It helps the employees to be active at work. In March 2018, the deep breath Calm team has launched CalmHealth, a new initiative under which they offer mindfulness, meditation and sleep tools to healthcare practitioners and their clients.
Furthermore, the mediation app has partnered with universities such as Cornell University, Northwestern University, University of Pennsylvania, and Johns Hopkins University to provide subscription access to the Calm library for all students and faculty during the 2017-2018 school years.
The team has also realized that not only adults and teens are facing the dilemma of unconsciousness of mindset as they were unaware of these practices since they were kids. So the calm team decided to begin the sessions for the kids named ‘Calm kids.’
‘Calm Kids’ sessions include beginner meditations for various age groups up to 18 years old. The full library of content in the app is also appropriate for all ages. Any of the meditations on the Meditate screen that are not a Series or a 7-day or 21-day program will have session options as short as 2-3 minutes, up to 30 minutes in length, so one can select the time length best suited for their classroom.
Milestones Achieved by Calm
The strenuous of the Calm team has been recognized by numerous media outlets and praised by all the users. It has been renowned by Apple by the title ‘App of the year’ in the 2017. In a major study by Apple, it has been found that around 200,000 iPhone users are using the meditation and relaxation app. Peoples were felling positivity and happiness by using this app, so Calm was titled as ‘The World’s Happiest App’ by Apple.
On the Google Play, the app has been kept under ‘Editor’s choice’ for the year 2018. On Google Play Store and iTunes, there are more than 200,000 users who have given the Calm app ‘5 star rating’.
